Grim's PC Repair Thread

[GrimFusion]

I've never tried this before (at least not around here), and I thought it was about time I actually did something constructive for you peeps. I'm a Comptia certified computer technician, and I know how easy it is to catch malware surfing porn and downloading crap. I'm equally skilled assessing hardware, operating system, and software errors under Windows, but I'm not too pro with Linux or Mac (Unix).

If you'd like some help, do me a favor and be as descriptive as possible. Type out any error messages you've encountered, and do your best to explain how your computer is misbehaving. Questions like "I have an error. What do I do?" won't get an answer. I need to know as much about your issue as possible before I can provide you a fix.

Expect a slew of questions. Sometimes finding a fix is complicated and I need more information than you've supplied, so don't be surprised when your reply is a volley of 10 questions I need an answer to.

If you're having issues following along with my instructions, don't cop an attitude or I won't want to help. Just ask me to re-explain if need be. I'm doing this for free and I usually charge people for work. If I'm not getting paid, you've got no right to be angry.

If you also know a thing or two about computers, feel free to lend a hand. Fixing an Internet Explorer error by suggesting the user switch to Google Chrome is unacceptable unless it's the last conceivable option. The point is to attempt a fix before suggesting a replacement or reformat. If replacement or reformat is the only option you can come up with, let someone who knows a little more handle the situation first.

Product opinions like "Macs are way better than PCs" or "Don't use Nero! Their customer service blows!" are wholly unnecessary and distract from the goal. Try to keep opinions to yourself or at least back up your claim by pointing to some serious supportive evidence.

[PomonaCA]

Moral of the story; Druggie gets stoned, brags about his 6 month certificate for fixing computers or as they put it "Performing repairs and maintenance on PC's other electronic devices". And the druggie is doing it for free because he's a nice guy, but is compelled to remind you that he's doing for free because he's a nice guy.

[GrimFusion]

Moral of the story; Druggie gets stoned, brags about his 6 month certificate for fixing computers or as they put it "Performing repairs and maintenance on PC's other electronic devices". And the druggie is doing it for free because he's a nice guy, but is compelled to remind you that he's doing for free because he's a nice guy.

I'm doing it for free because I dig a challenge and nights I get out of work and don't have anything to do, it's an entertaining way to both test myself and pass the time. I don't know why I'm wasting my time trying to explain myself to a self-righteous religious fanatic. Whatever. I hope your ass gets a platter crash.

[dderek123]

Pomona what happened to your sig?

[bulldog]

Been building computers for about 10 years now, mostly as a hobby, but I can hold my own well enough when it comes to them, especially hardware.

Going back for my associates as a computer support specialist this year in fact.

Got no problem helping out

[PomonaCA]

Pomona what happened to your sig?

My sig has changed with time. It's pretty sweet.

[dderek123]

^ I was going to say that he should change his name to homophobun.

[GrimFusion]

Been building computers for about 10 years now, mostly as a hobby, but I can hold my own well enough when it comes to them, especially hardware.

Going back for my associates as a computer support specialist this year in fact.

Very killer. I've been building since '98. I still remember PCs with riser boards and PCI extenders. P3 Slot1 SECC2 crapola. I haven't been building much in the last year or so because of work, though. I don't pay much attention to the newest and the best anymore because frankly, I can't afford the newest or the best.

I practically have my MCSE, but I'm a tad fuzzy on network topology. I need to tackle college next. I figure coming out of college with a degree in something IT-related and an MCSE certification might help find me one of those elusive "career" things I keep hearing about.

[PomonaCA]

^ I was going to say that he should change his name to homophobun.


Look, sucking a dick doesn't make a guy gay. Oh, nevermind. Phobun says the he only likes pre-op chicks and he's totally not trolling for she-cock.

Phobun is here to find a perfect chick with a dick who plans to get the chop because he totally hates the idea of a girl with a dick despite what he said in his sentence that I quoted in my sig.

BTW, stop interfering in my thread. This thread is about grimfusion and his hopped-up feel-goodism. And don't you forget it!

[muh_muh]

will you come over here and be my dads personal pc fixing slave? im getting tired of repairing his fucking pc ever few days

[dderek123]

Ahh I see. Thanks Pomona.

I enjoy building computers as well. But I'm a total novice. What helps is to have my Dell laptop handy while I am building so I can run to google when I fuck up.

I haven't built anything in a while. But within a year I want to build a HTPC for my living room. I just got to get a big LED TV first.

[PomonaCA]

Ahh I see. Thanks Pomona.

I enjoy building computers as well. But I'm a total novice. What helps is to have my Dell laptop handy while I am building so I can run to google when I fuck up.

I haven't built anything in a while. But within a year I want to build a HTPC for my living room. I just got to get a big LED TV first.


dderek, you seem like an ok guy. Dell computers are pretty sweet. What is nice about building PC's is that even poor people like us can build them.

[robertlouis]

Come on guys, buy a MacBook. You know it makes sense lol.

[dderek123]

^Macbooks are nice. But expensive. The initial cost of a mac can be justified but if the thing breaks the repairs cost way too much. I'm too frugal to even pay for the software that I us. I think the Apple TV is pretty cool I am considering getting that instead of the HTPC. You can even load XBMC on the thing which is awesome.

[dderek123]

dderek, you seem like an ok guy. Dell computers are pretty sweet. What is nice about building PC's is that even poor people like us can build them.
Thanks Pomona. Yeah I like Dell and Lenovo now. Those would be my first choices if I were to buy a new notebook PC.

Not only is it more cost efficient but you get better warranty coverage. Hard drives typically come with 3 or 5 year warranties. Also, you can shop around for exactly what you want. Want quad SLI? No problem. Want a cheap server box? No problem. I love it. It's like lego for grown ups!

[bulldog]

This is what I am running right now

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Mainboard : Asus M4N98TD EVO (Both PCIe16 Slots run at x16 speed, even when both filled)
Memory: 8GB (2X4GB) of Corsair Dominator 1600MHz
Video Card: MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB X2 SLI
PSU: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro 1000W SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 (3 230mm, 1 140mm Fans)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen II (Soon to be CoolerMaster V6 GT when I finally install it)
Monitor: Samsung 23 in LCD LED Backlit HD
Hard Drives: ------
Boot Drive: 100 GB OCZ Agility 2 SSD
Data Drives: 750 GB Western Digital Green, 500 GB Western Digital Blue



I am skipping the 500 series of Nvidia and waiting for their next gen 600 cards which are supposed to be twice the power of Fermi or more, along with a 6 core AMD Bulldozer series processor when they come out.

[kukm4]

will you come over here and be my dads personal pc fixing slave? im getting tired of repairing his fucking pc ever few days

install it once, make a restore img :banana:

[GrimFusion]

will you come over here and be my dads personal pc fixing slave? im getting tired of repairing his fucking pc ever few days

lol, no kidding. I gave up on fixing family computers a long time ago. Like kukm4 said, look into drive imaging software like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Both apps can take a complete snapshot of your drive. Afterward, you can burn the image files to a DVD or two and you've basically made a custom set of restore discs. 20 minutes and no pay sounds better than three hours without pay, right?

The other alternative is something like Faronics DeepFreeze. DeepFreeze allows you to circumvent the use of antivirus and antispyware apps by completely restoring a selected partition on reboot, but there are some pretty annoying drawbacks. Software won't update, apps and games won't actually install, antimalware scans can't be run on the selected partition, and having to reboot into a "thawed" state to make changes can get a little annoying after a while. Those issues can be circumvented if DeepFreeze and all installed apps are properly configured, but it's a lot of little nit-picky work.

[GrimFusion]

This is what I am running right now

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
Mainboard : Asus M4N98TD EVO (Both PCIe16 Slots run at x16 speed, even when both filled)
Memory: 8GB (2X4GB) of Corsair Dominator 1600MHz
Video Card: MSI GTX 460 Cyclone 1GB X2 SLI
PSU: COOLER MASTER Silent Pro 1000W SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 (3 230mm, 1 140mm Fans)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen II (Soon to be CoolerMaster V6 GT when I finally install it)
Monitor: Samsung 23 in LCD LED Backlit HD
Hard Drives: ------
Boot Drive: 100 GB OCZ Agility 2 SSD
Data Drives: 750 GB Western Digital Green, 500 GB Western Digital Blue



I am skipping the 500 series of Nvidia and waiting for their next gen 600 cards which are supposed to be twice the power of Fermi or more, along with a 6 core AMD Bulldozer series processor when they come out.

Damn you and your 100GB SSD. I'm jealous. I've been thinking about slapping a 40GB or 60GB SSD as a primary and deferring the page file to a little 8GB or 16GB SSD scratch drive I can use for temp files too.

[TempestTS]

lol, no kidding. I gave up on fixing family computers a long time ago. Like kukm4 said, look into drive imaging software like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Both apps can take a complete snapshot of your drive. Afterward, you can burn the image files to a DVD or two and you've basically made a custom set of restore discs. 20 minutes and no pay sounds better than three hours without pay, right?

The other alternative is something like Faronics DeepFreeze. DeepFreeze allows you to circumvent the use of antivirus and antispyware apps by completely restoring a selected partition on reboot, but there are some pretty annoying drawbacks. Software won't update, apps and games won't actually install, antimalware scans can't be run on the selected partition, and having to reboot into a "thawed" state to make changes can get a little annoying after a while. Those issues can be circumvented if DeepFreeze and all installed apps are properly configured, but it's a lot of little nit-picky work.

Acronis is a good product, I largely gave up on Ghost after it started having issues with manufacturer pre-installed special system or restore partitions but they may have fixed that by now. Also look into Shadow Protect (desktop or server) it can create incremental bare metal restore points while the system is running so you get multiple fall back points. DeepFreeze causes more problems than its worth and its pain in the ass to work around when they come up.

Skip imaging to DVD media, it takes too long and one scratched or bad DVD in the set and your image set cant be restored and is now useless. You can get a 500 Gb USB drive for about 50 bucks and a 1TB is only $100 and is much faster and more stable than a bunch of DVD's. (youll still need to use a utility Boot disk but since they arnt unique like the image disks you can always make another.) If you go ESata youll cut down your imaging time even more or get a nice little NAS unit running on a gigabit LAN and use that for incremental every 3 hours and youll always have a fall back point.

Id list off my system specs but thats like so much dick waving LOL... Besides my day job is a Network Admin for 3 Airports, a large main office facility, a retail chain administrative office and a Medical specialist placement firm so if I listed all the systems I take care of it would take up a whole page. :rolleyes:

BTW since your just getting started into the PC support thing you should look into getting TeamViewer for remote support on client systems, unlike other remote software like RDP or VNC ect... you dont have to worry about IP addresses or most firewall settings (unless they are really strict on allowing internal traffic get out of the network) The client is free and easy to have a user download and can be ran without installing. You can try it out completely for free and it generates a unique session and password for the client every time so people dont have to worry about you having access to their system after you complete the work. Ive got it installed on about 200 systems for remote management and love that I can connect to the client system anywhere Im at regardless of firewalls on either end as long as network access is available.

[onmyknees]

Moral of the story; Druggie gets stoned, brags about his 6 month certificate for fixing computers or as they put it "Performing repairs and maintenance on PC's other electronic devices". And the druggie is doing it for free because he's a nice guy, but is compelled to remind you that he's doing for free because he's a nice guy.

Pomona..I kinda like Grim, but I gotta tell ya..that's the funniest fucking thing I've ever read. I'm pissing my Levi's.

[GrimFusion]

Pomona..I kinda like Grim, but I gotta tell ya..that's the funniest fucking thing I've ever read. I'm pissing my Levi's.

I gotta admit I laughed a little too. If nothing else, at least the guy's creative.

[GrimFusion]

Acronis is a good product, I largely gave up on Ghost after it started having issues with manufacturer pre-installed special system or restore partitions but they may have fixed that by now. Also look into Shadow Protect (desktop or server) it can create incremental bare metal restore points while the system is running so you get multiple fall back points. DeepFreeze causes more problems than its worth and its pain in the ass to work around when they come up.

Skip imaging to DVD media, it takes too long and one scratched or bad DVD in the set and your image set cant be restored and is now useless. You can get a 500 Gb USB drive for about 50 bucks and a 1TB is only $100 and is much faster and more stable than a bunch of DVD's. (youll still need to use a utility Boot disk but since they arnt unique like the image disks you can always make another.) If you go ESata youll cut down your imaging time even more or get a nice little NAS unit running on a gigabit LAN and use that for incremental every 3 hours and youll always have a fall back point.

Id list off my system specs but thats like so much dick waving LOL... Besides my day job is a Network Admin for 3 Airports, a large main office facility, a retail chain administrative office and a Medical specialist placement firm so if I listed all the systems I take care of it would take up a whole page. :rolleyes:

BTW since your just getting started into the PC support thing you should look into getting TeamViewer for remote support on client systems, unlike other remote software like RDP or VNC ect... you dont have to worry about IP addresses or most firewall settings (unless they are really strict on allowing internal traffic get out of the network) The client is free and easy to have a user download and can be ran without installing. You can try it out completely for free and it generates a unique session and password for the client every time so people dont have to worry about you having access to their system after you complete the work. Ive got it installed on about 200 systems for remote management and love that I can connect to the client system anywhere Im at regardless of firewalls on either end as long as network access is available.

I heard about System Protect before... after I purchased DeepFreeze (go figure), but you're right. It is a better solution; I just wish they sold some kind of volume license copy instead of charging on a per-installation basis.

Your idea of backing up to a e-SATA external HD is completely sound, but I still think DVD backup is a better idea for the average joe. Just about everybody has access to a couple of jewel cases and DVD+R discs and most every computer these days has a DVD burner. Speed isn't really an issue unless you plan incremental backups, but I'm just talking about a single set of restore discs for when the client is in a pinch. Besides, if I make a restore disc set for a customer and they scratch the crap out of them by the time I have to come back and restore their computer, I get to charge another $160 for OS installation and software config. Go me.

I'll look into teamspeak as a RDC; right now I'm using a branded VNC server and computers behind some routers are a pain to connect to. Does teamspeak work anything like Hamachi or a VPN?

[TempestTS]

OK ROTFLOL... you got the name wrong of all the applications I suggested and there were only two. Oh well you were close.

Its Shadow Protect, and you can get the IT edition which allows unlimited installs but its going to cost you up fron

Using e-SATA or USB external drives for backup isnt just about speed although if your maintaining a bunch of systems time can be an enemy so you want to get things back up and going as quickly as possible so faster is better. DVD's are not stable, and Im not talking about scratches or mishandling them. DVD's use a dye system that will break down over time and since most people use pretty cheap DVD's the lifespan can be as short as a few years. High quality or "Gold Standard" media can last quite a bit longer but its still no where near as stable as a hard disk in a protected location and youll never have to worry about a restore image being wrecked because ONE DVD out of the set cant be read...

If your backing up its because its important. If your telling me that its not important enough to spend 40-50 bucks on a external drive then why even back up at all. Its not about charging the customer its about protecting the customer so they stay your customer for a long long time. I still have my first client office back when I went independant as a customer today nearly 10 years later and thats worth more than 160 bucks for a return visit that they might figure could have been avoided. You might get that $160 a couple times then they will look elsewhere and you lose not just them but any referrals you might get.

The other product I spoke of is TeamViewer, not teamspeak LOL... I used VNC for a long time as well as terminal services and while RDP is the best for general use when you need to connect to a first time client or a system that dosent have RDP running and nobody on location has a clue about their firewall or IP address TeamViewer makes the whole process just about as completely painless as possible. It works by both sides of the client connecting to the TeamViewer centeralized servers which work like a connection broker service so both sides are initiating the connection from inside their respective firewalls which is allowed by all but the most strict firewall rule sets. Try it out, get it on your system and have a friend who has no tech skills down load it on their system and run it, get them on the phone and have them run it and ask for their session and password numbers which it displays in big blue boxes as soon as you start it, enter those on your end and connect and you get right to their desktop, no ports to open, no external IP addresses to puzzle out, no tech terms, just "Hey can you read me the numbers in the blue boxes, OK Ill connect..." and its done... you can even be at a coffee shop or tethering your phone to a laptop and it will work. Slick little system.

[BBaggins06]

Is it wrong that I got turned on more by Tempest talking tech here than her return to porn thread? #nerdgasm

[GrimFusion]

OK ROTFLOL... you got the name wrong of all the applications I suggested and there were only two. Oh well you were close.

Its Shadow Protect, and you can get the IT edition which allows unlimited installs but its going to cost you up fron

Using e-SATA or USB external drives for backup isnt just about speed although if your maintaining a bunch of systems time can be an enemy so you want to get things back up and going as quickly as possible so faster is better. DVD's are not stable, and Im not talking about scratches or mishandling them. DVD's use a dye system that will break down over time and since most people use pretty cheap DVD's the lifespan can be as short as a few years. High quality or "Gold Standard" media can last quite a bit longer but its still no where near as stable as a hard disk in a protected location and youll never have to worry about a restore image being wrecked because ONE DVD out of the set cant be read...

If your backing up its because its important. If your telling me that its not important enough to spend 40-50 bucks on a external drive then why even back up at all. Its not about charging the customer its about protecting the customer so they stay your customer for a long long time. I still have my first client office back when I went independant as a customer today nearly 10 years later and thats worth more than 160 bucks for a return visit that they might figure could have been avoided. You might get that $160 a couple times then they will look elsewhere and you lose not just them but any referrals you might get.

The other product I spoke of is TeamViewer, not teamspeak LOL... I used VNC for a long time as well as terminal services and while RDP is the best for general use when you need to connect to a first time client or a system that dosent have RDP running and nobody on location has a clue about their firewall or IP address TeamViewer makes the whole process just about as completely painless as possible. It works by both sides of the client connecting to the TeamViewer centeralized servers which work like a connection broker service so both sides are initiating the connection from inside their respective firewalls which is allowed by all but the most strict firewall rule sets. Try it out, get it on your system and have a friend who has no tech skills down load it on their system and run it, get them on the phone and have them run it and ask for their session and password numbers which it displays in big blue boxes as soon as you start it, enter those on your end and connect and you get right to their desktop, no ports to open, no external IP addresses to puzzle out, no tech terms, just "Hey can you read me the numbers in the blue boxes, OK Ill connect..." and its done... you can even be at a coffee shop or tethering your phone to a laptop and it will work. Slick little system.

I'd like to say I was goating you for a reply, but I was just stoned. I downloaded TeamViewer (holy shit... got the name right this time), but I'll need to devote a day to rebranding the quicksupport software. Looks promising, though. Thanks for the tip!

I've set up automatic backup to external HDDs for clients before. The three time I've done it, one client decided to continually cancel out of the backup process because it slowed down their PC, the second client had a son who formatted the external HDD and moved it to his game room for use with his game consoles, and the third hasn't needed recovery since.

If we're talking data integrity here, I backup to my personal external HDD before I burn the ISOs under Windows. I take a copy home with me and off-load it to my NAS in case they lose their copy. I'd just rather their data be safe in my hands rather than leave the security of their data in their hands. I know that sounds a little spooky where data privacy is concerned, but I've had four clients lose their recovery discs months after I've made them and I was still able to recover their systems.

I just don't trust my clients to listen to me or learn from what I show them. I try anyway, but the more complicated the process, the better the chance the client will bork it all up; and I've seen my fair share of borkery.

[GrimFusion]

Pic Unrelated

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/grimfusion/1171131608788.jpg

I'm bumping the thread.


If you need any questions answered, just ask.

[Deimos]

blue screen on a deep freeze protected vista os ...any suggestions

[bulldog]

blue screen on a deep freeze protected vista os ...any suggestions

BSOD code? Should be easy enough to look up if thats all it is, almost always hardware issue, quite often RAM, but can be caused by numerous things

[GrimFusion]

blue screen on a deep freeze protected vista os ...any suggestions

Next time that BSOD error occurs, write down the stop code (should look like 0x000000X), write it down and post it here.

BSODs commonly happen with RAM errors, but they can also be triggered by IRQ issues, driver faults, or issues with the pagefile.

If this has been happening since the last time you reformatted, or you've recently installed new hardware or updated drivers, download HWinfo (http://www.hwinfo.com/) in either it's x32 or x64 format, run it, then jot down all of your chipset, audio, video, and PCI device model numbers and download the most up-to-date drivers straight from the manufacturer, thaw your DeepFreeze partition, install 'em, and re-freeze.

If you've been running heavy apps like Photoshop, or anything graphic design, video authoring, or audio editing related, you might have an issue with your pagefile. The page file at its minimum should be exactly the size of your installed system RAM and at most, should be 1.5x the size of your installed system RAM. In other words, if you're running with 4GB of RAM, your minimum pagefile size should be 4096MB and at max 6144MB. Remember 1GB actually equals 1024MB. That said, the page file is tricky business because if you don't set it correctly, your pagefile becomes overly-fragmented and underpreforms. If you have a second hard drive, you can move the page file to the second drive for a performance boost, and it might be a good idea to at least move it off of the DeepFreeze partition even if it is on a multiple partition single hard drive.

...all that said, pagefile settings are available by right-clicking your My Computer icon either on your desktop or in your start menu, clicking "Properties", selecting the "Advanced" tab, clicking the "Performance -> Settings" button, selecting the "Advanced" tab in the new window, and clicking the "Virtual Memory -> Change" button. If you're going to move the pagefile, create the new one first, then delete the default pagefile on the C: drive.

If it's an IRQ issue, we'll need some more info from you at that point. I'll cross that bridge if I have to. Lastly, if none of that has worked, download and run MemTest (http://hcidesign.com/memtest/) to test your RAM.

[TempestTS]

Is it wrong that I got turned on more by Tempest talking tech here than her return to porn thread? #nerdgasm

Yes thats completely wrong. Now take your dick out and go find some photos of me and Im sure the rest will come naturally...

[Deimos]

much appreciated Grim. i'll try this on and see what comes of it.

[Deimos]

okay heres what i get

0x000000D1 (0x0000001B, 0x0000001, 0x8200A3F3)

[bulldog]

Its probably a driver issue from the sound of it, update your drivers for your hardware, restart you computer and see how that goes.

[Deimos]

Will do, and thanks for the suggestion

[GrimFusion]

okay heres what i get

0x000000D1 (0x0000001B, 0x0000001, 0x8200A3F3)

That's a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL stop error.
It's a driver fault. Deal is, the error doesn't tell me much about the driver specifically. If there was a time you weren't getting these errors and you've installed new hardware since, download the newest driver from the manufacturer and apply it. It's commonplace for graphic card drivers to cause errors like this, but honestly; it could be any device driver.

If you have one of those "off-the-shelf" systems like a Dell or HP, Gateway or Asus, you might be able to skip all the hassle by going to the manufacturer's website, looking up your model number, and downloading the newest drivers for your operating system.

Otherwise, follow the instructions I gave ya in my last post and apply any "motherboard" drivers first (if you have onboard video, audio, networking, etc). Skip the deal on the paging file. It's erroneous at this point.

[Anubis1779]

Grim,

I read somewhere about a newer virus that runs through one of the "your system may be infected" type of scams and even if you click the "X" to close it it installs on your system and destroys your computer. What do you know about it? A friend of mine's computer shit the bed and I know she ran some kind of scan that identified 57,000 problems!!

[dderek123]

^ Yeah you gotta watch out for those. There are plenty of them. I stick with AVG Free and I don't install any other antivirus from the internet. Removing that stuff from your computer can be a pain in the butt too. It happened to me once and I had to go fix up the registry and tinker around in the command line.

[dderek123]

I've finally got cracking on my HTPC. I ordered all the parts from a shop in Bangkok (Jedi Cool in Pantip Plaza http://www.jedicool.com/).

Here are my specs.

Motherboard: AsRock 880GMH/U3S3 AM3+ AMD880G/SB710 DDR3 HD4250 USB3 SATA3
CPU: Athlon II X2 255 AM3 3.10GHz L2 2MB 95W
Case: Thermaltake V4
Memory: Kingston Value Ram 4GB (2 x 2GB)
HDD: WESTERN DIGITAL 2 TB WD20EARS SATA ll / 64MB Green Power
Graphics: HIS HD 6670 1Gb PSU 2,190 Thermaltake TR2 470W DVD 750 DVD-RW LITEON 24X SATA2 LIGHTSCRIBE
Windows: WINDOW 7 HOME PREMIUM OEM 64BIT

Total 18700 Baht

Thats $603.00 for a HTPC that will have no problems with 1080p and some light gaming. Windows just finished installing. I'm getting excited!

I think my next step is to load drivers and all that. But then I plan on setting up a kickass XBMC. :dancing:

[GrimFusion]

Grim,

I read somewhere about a newer virus that runs through one of the "your system may be infected" type of scams and even if you click the "X" to close it it installs on your system and destroys your computer. What do you know about it? A friend of mine's computer shit the bed and I know she ran some kind of scan that identified 57,000 problems!!


That's unreputable antimalware software packaged with either a rootkit or trojan horse. The 57,000 "problems" are just as fake as the software itself, and when you get down to the details, no software is going to scan your computer and do all the work of identifying malware, then ask you to purchase something before removing it.

Rootkits and trojan horses are pesky as hell because there's no easy way to tag and bag 'em. Most antivirus software detects rootkits and trojans by their behavior, not by the scripting/coding or files the malware leaves behind. Whatever... you wanna know how to remove the shit, right?

Tell your buddy to download RogueKiller (http://majorgeeks.com/RogueKiller_d6983.html). If at all possible, update any real installed antimalware, then reboot into safe mode (F8 key before the Windows boot logo -> Safe Mode). Avoid Safe Mode with Networking. Let the shit boot, log in, then run RogueKiller.

Follow the simple on-screen directions. After it's done, it'll likely ask you to reboot again. Don't. If you have any reputable antimalware, give your computer a scan while you're still in safe mode. If you need some good antimalware software, I'd suggest SuperAntiSpyware and Avast. After that's done scanning, reboot your PC back into regular mode. If things still seem quirky, you may have two issues on your hands.

Software like this usually makes changes to it's default user account, removing administrator privileges, changing the HOSTS file to block or redirect internet traffic, and adding proxy server information.

You may also still be infected. Trojans and rootkits are notorious for downloading other malware. While we may have just gotten rid of the worst of it, there's a chance that you're still infected with less serious malware. Best case scenario, you'll just need to keep up with regular malware scans. Worst case scenario, your regular antimalware software won't load, and you'll need to find something else. F-Secure makes a LiveCD (http://www.techmixer.com/free-f-secure-rescue-bootable-cd-to-clean-virus-and-malware/) you can use to remove malware outside of your operating system, and updates load from a flash drive, so it's pretty easy to use.

[GrimFusion]

I've finally got cracking on my HTPC. I ordered all the parts from a shop in Bangkok (Jedi Cool in Pantip Plaza http://www.jedicool.com/).

Here are my specs.

Motherboard: AsRock 880GMH/U3S3 AM3+ AMD880G/SB710 DDR3 HD4250 USB3 SATA3
CPU: Athlon II X2 255 AM3 3.10GHz L2 2MB 95W
Case: Thermaltake V4
Memory: Kingston Value Ram 4GB (2 x 2GB)
HDD: WESTERN DIGITAL 2 TB WD20EARS SATA ll / 64MB Green Power
Graphics: HIS HD 6670 1Gb PSU 2,190 Thermaltake TR2 470W DVD 750 DVD-RW LITEON 24X SATA2 LIGHTSCRIBE
Windows: WINDOW 7 HOME PREMIUM OEM 64BIT

Total 18700 Baht

Thats $603.00 for a HTPC that will have no problems with 1080p and some light gaming. Windows just finished installing. I'm getting excited!

I think my next step is to load drivers and all that. But then I plan on setting up a kickass XBMC. :dancing:


See, I probably would have set up that 2TB SATA II HDD as a primary-slave media storage drive and added a 16GB SATA III SSD as primary-master. Write limitations on SSDs are a lot less dramatic than they were two years ago, and if you're still worried, you could always move your swap file to the secondary SATA II. I never build computers with less than two hard drives, even if we're talking about separate partitions. I've had too many issues with single-drive systems in the past, whether they be OS boot issues, or actual drive crashes. I'd just rather lose either my media or my OS than both. *shrugs*

[Silcc69]

I just bought a new copy of City of Hero's and it will not work on either my desktop or laptop.

I am way above the recommended specs on both of them. The only thing is maybe my videocard isn't strong enough. I have an All In Wonder HD for my desktop and an Nvidia NVS3100M for my laptop both cards have 512MB.

I have installed it but everytime I click the icon I get the UAC thing and picking yes or no results in well nothing. But DCU seems to work fine.

[kukm4]

Wikipedia for game says

On PC, Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 2 Series, ATI™ Radeon® 8500 or Intel® i810G Series Video Card

on Mac, Video: NVIDIA® GeForce FX 5600 Series (or higher), ATI™ Radeon® 9600 (or higher)

[flabbybody]

sometimes when I click on the back button it doesn't take me to the prior page I was viewing. getting annoying because it's happen more frequently. I've cleared the cache and all that nonsense. using latest version of firefox browser on windows xp.
HELP

[Dino Velvet]

Grim, you're a good man bumping this thread and helping folks with their computer problems.:cheers::smoking

[talldudeil]

Work off of flash drives for the ghosting software, external drives are good for imaging but make sure that you do it every month so you don't loose data as bad. I use a hp 6910p laptop with a kingston 128gb ssd and a quad core for a desk top. Work at an electronic recycling company so am building and repairing computers all day. Have 4 flash drives and hirens hd tune pro personal server with 6tb of storage. Sell good desktops and laptops at a good price and can also help with problems online most times.

There is a active X virus going around that will pop up on even normal websites saying your computer is infected and need to pay 16.99 to fix it the problem is if you click anywhere on or in the box your infected just F4 and your ok, then contact the webmaster. Good luck and good computing

Steve


Acronis is a good product, I largely gave up on Ghost after it started having issues with manufacturer pre-installed special system or restore partitions but they may have fixed that by now. Also look into Shadow Protect (desktop or server) it can create incremental bare metal restore points while the system is running so you get multiple fall back points. DeepFreeze causes more problems than its worth and its pain in the ass to work around when they come up.

Skip imaging to DVD media, it takes too long and one scratched or bad DVD in the set and your image set cant be restored and is now useless. You can get a 500 Gb USB drive for about 50 bucks and a 1TB is only $100 and is much faster and more stable than a bunch of DVD's. (youll still need to use a utility Boot disk but since they arnt unique like the image disks you can always make another.) If you go ESata youll cut down your imaging time even more or get a nice little NAS unit running on a gigabit LAN and use that for incremental every 3 hours and youll always have a fall back point.

Id list off my system specs but thats like so much dick waving LOL... Besides my day job is a Network Admin for 3 Airports, a large main office facility, a retail chain administrative office and a Medical specialist placement firm so if I listed all the systems I take care of it would take up a whole page. :rolleyes:

BTW since your just getting started into the PC support thing you should look into getting TeamViewer for remote support on client systems, unlike other remote software like RDP or VNC ect... you dont have to worry about IP addresses or most firewall settings (unless they are really strict on allowing internal traffic get out of the network) The client is free and easy to have a user download and can be ran without installing. You can try it out completely for free and it generates a unique session and password for the client every time so people dont have to worry about you having access to their system after you complete the work. Ive got it installed on about 200 systems for remote management and love that I can connect to the client system anywhere Im at regardless of firewalls on either end as long as network access is available.

[Silcc69]

My Win 7 keeps installing this thing over and over again.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-068

IDK what the deal is but its annoying as fuck.

[kukm4]

My Win 7 keeps installing this thing over and over again.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-068

IDK what the deal is but its annoying as fuck.

Hope this helps.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/1dfc9b8e-2743-4889-96f3-a8ec58ee26b0

[GrimFusion]

I'm bumping this just to see if everybody's doin' dandy.
Unless it becomes an issue, I might re-bump once a month just in case anybody needs anything.

If you've been having computer problems, describe them and I'll do my best to provide an answer or tutorial.

[south ov da border]

I got one. In my firefox I keep getting random windows that don't pop up but show up only when I check on my open program bar and I don't know where they are coming from. It'll be like for amazon or some other thing. I can't figure where the infection is. What do you suggest???

[Dino Velvet]

I did finally get a good PC if anyone is shopping for a new one. My Dell XPS8300 (http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8300/pd) with Windows 7 has worked great and is so much better than my old HP crap with Windows Vista. I also have the Kapersky Security Software. It wasn't fee but it's worked well for me.

[GrimFusion]

I got one. In my firefox I keep getting random windows that don't pop up but show up only when I check on my open program bar and I don't know where they are coming from. It'll be like for amazon or some other thing. I can't figure where the infection is. What do you suggest???

Try RogueKiller (http://majorgeeks.com/RogueKiller_d6983.html). It's kinda like HijackThis, but much more detailed.
Let it load.
Click the Scan button.
When it's done, click the Report button.
Copy the text file contents and paste it into pastebin (http://pastebin.com/).
Copy the link and chuck it at me.

[GrimFusion]

I did finally get a good PC if anyone is shopping for a new one. My Dell XPS8300 (http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8300/pd) with Windows 7 has worked great and is so much better than my old HP crap with Windows Vista. I also have the Kapersky Security Software. It wasn't fee but it's worked well for me.

Have you thought about upgrading your HP to Windows 7 and keeping it around as a clunker or backup? Usually if a computer will run Vista, it'll run Windows 7 more responsively... but you could ensure that with a cheap-ass RAM upgrade.

[Dino Velvet]

Have you thought about upgrading your HP to Windows 7 and keeping it around as a clunker or backup? Usually if a computer will run Vista, it'll run Windows 7 more responsively... but you could ensure that with a cheap-ass RAM upgrade.

I kinda have. Still have it packed away inside. That's good advice. Thanks for keeping this thread alive. This and the weed thread are today's best. Jack Palance also agrees.:cheers:

[south ov da border]

http://pastebin.com/shFSzAiq

[Prospero]

Never liked PCs. I used a range of Macs - presently five of them (two lap tops, two desk tops and a Ipad)

[GrimFusion]

http://pastebin.com/shFSzAiq

Not bad. I only see one entry there that I'm a little worried about, but it's not what's causing the new-window-popup issue in Firefox.

As far as the popups go, I don't think it's due to any kind of malware. There are a few options to prevent the popups, even though they're harmless as far as I can tell.

In Firefox, open the Options menu.
In the Tabs section, there should be an option labeled "Open new windows in a new tab instead". Check it and click OK.
There's also an addon for Firefox called QuickJava (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/quickjava/). It allows you to disable Java, JavaScript, CSS, flash, and images on the fly. I usually configure it so only the Java and Javascript buttons are visible.

I always block Java because I don't mess with very many web apps or online browser-based games. JavaScript is the culprit, though. JavaScript is the reason why these webpages are getting around your popup blocker and opening advertisements in new windows. Problem is, A LOT of websites use JavaScript and most of them are perfectly reputable, so you're only going to want to disable JavaScript if you're browsing through sites you don't trust.

So, getting back to RogueKiller... load it back up. Instead of scanning again, click the ProxyFix and DNSfix buttons.
Now do a scan and wait until it finishes.
Check under the Proxy tab.

If this line still exists:

[PROXY IE] HKCU\[...]\Internet Settings : ProxyServer (150.140.184.110:3128) -> FOUND
Check it, then make sure no other entries are checked and click the Delete button.
Reboot for success and win.

[GrimFusion]

Never liked PCs. I used a range of Macs - presently five of them (two lap tops, two desk tops and a Ipad)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Macs don't encounter problems nearly as often as PCs that run Windows. I just don't see the point in buying overpriced hardware just for the operating system, especially when there are free alternatives that are just as secure (Linux).

It used to be that Macs were better for art and design work, audio editing, and video editing. Not so much anymore. Since Apple switched to using Intel architecture, the only remaining difference between PCs and Macs is the operating system.

I don't like OSX because there's not enough customization options without using third-party software or having to learn UNIX command-line. It's far too WYSIWYG. If there is a software or hardware issue, a system restart is the most common fix-all. Under Windows, there's some sort of GUI utility for everything, and that bloats the fuck out of any Windows installation, but I prefer that to forcing users to learn and use a command-line to change most OS settings because most users wouldn't bother with that.

[kukm4]

south ov da border, Another thing you may want to look at for Firefox and Java
is an Add-on called No Script.

Block scripts in Firefox - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBqnLgOzwM)